Get Some Headspace: 10 minutes can make all the difference
Impressions
- 洪一萍shared an impression5 years ago
💡Learnt A LotMeditation is like doing focused reps for your mind. Focus on the breath, lose your focus, bring it back to the breath, repeat. This is the whole game. Keep bringing your mind back to the breath.
How to meditate: sit somewhere comfortable, keep a straight spine, focus on a spot, and bring your focus back to your breath whenever you lose it.
Meditation helps you shut down your monkey mind for a moment.
We have 3 habitual responses to everything we experience: 1) We want it. 2) We reject it. 3) We zone out. Mindfulness is a fourth response. Viewing what happens in the world without an emotional response about it.
“Mindfulness represents an alternative to living reactively.”
Interesting self-sabotage insight: many people worry that if they meditate they will lose their edge and no longer be competitive or driven.
“When you squelch something you give it power. Ignorance is not bliss.” You should not run from your problems and pain. You should acknowledge them.
The R.A.I.N. Technique for meditation: Recognize. Allow. Investigate. Non-identification. 1) Recognize: Acknowledge your feelings. 2) Allow: Where you lean into the pain. Let the pain be. 3) Investigate: Check out how the situation is impacting your body. Is my face hot? Is my back tight? Etc. 4) Non-identification: Realize that just because you feel pain or frustration or guilt or anger right now does not mean you are an angry or broken person. It is simply a phase happening at this moment, not your identity as a person.
Mindfulness seems to be about awareness of the self. You recognize and acknowledge the things going on around you and the emotions you are feeling. Rather than let the emotion drive everything, you step outside of it and see it from afar.
Being mindful doesn’t change the problems in your life. You still need to take action, but the key is that mindfulness allows you to respond rather than react to the problems in your life.
Hedonic adaptation: the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.
A simple question to ask yourself when you’re worrying: “Is this useful?”
“I do meditation because it makes me 10 percent happier.”
“Everything we experience in this world goes through one filter — our minds — and we spend very little time bothering to see how it works.”
Meditation will make you more resilient, but it is not a “cure all” that fixes your problems or relieves all stress in your life.
One Harvard study shows that gray matter grows in meditators. This is known as neuroplasticity.
Scientists have developed a term for the consequence of all our multitasking: continuous partial attention.
The Dalai Lama has a theory on selfishness: We should strive to be wise selfish rather than foolish selfish. Foolish selfish is when you focus on self-centered and shallow activities. Wise selfish is when you show compassion and help others because it benefits you and makes you feel good. Compassion is in our own self-interest.
Make eye contact and smile at people. This simple habit that will make you feel more connected and much better each day. - Semashared an impression4 years ago
👍Worth reading🎯Worthwhile - Lolashared an impression6 years ago
👍Worth reading💡Learnt A Lot🎯Worthwhile🚀Unputdownable
Quotes
- 洪一萍has quoted5 years ago“Over time, this will get easier. You won’t want to run out into the road quite so often and you’ll find it easier and easier to just sit and watch the thoughts go by. This is the process of meditation.”
- Anastasia Bastrakovahas quoted3 years ago
“Imagine a clear blue sky,” he began. “Feels nice, yes? It’s very hard to feel down when the sky’s blue like that.” He paused, as if to appreciate the space this image brought to the mind. “Now, imagine that your mind is like this blue sky. I’m not talking about all the thoughts, confusion and craziness,” he said chuckling. “I’m talking about the underlying essence of mind, the natural state.” I took a moment to think about it. Imagining a clear blue sky was one thing, but imagining that it somehow represented my own mind was quite another. There was nothing clear about my mind back then, it was just full of thoughts and confusing emotions. “It doesn’t matter whether this is your experience right now,” he said, “simply imagine for a moment that this is how things are. In fact, think back to the last time you felt very happy and relaxed and it’s probably not so very difficult to imagine.” He was right, when I thought about a happy time in my life at the same moment, it was actually very easy to imagine. Try it for yourself right now.
“Okay,” he said, “now imagine a very cloudy day, no blue sky at all, just big, dark, heavy clouds.” He said each word very slowly, as if to emphasize the point. “How does that make you feel?” he asked, still smiling, “not so good, right? Now, imagine those clouds are the thoughts in your mind, how sometimes they’re fluffy and white and appear quite friendly, whereas at other times they appear dark and heavy. The color of the clouds simply reflects your feeling or mood at the time.” It was true—when I had lots of friendly thoughts racing around, the fluffy white clouds, I wasn’t that bothered about having a busy mind. Unless I was trying - Anastasia Bastrakovahas quoted3 years agoBut it was the next bit of his story that really resonated and that I hope will stay with you too for a long time to come. “In order to get to this monastery you must have flown in a plane?” he asked, knowing full well what the answer would be. I agreed. “Was it cloudy when you left?” he asked. “It’s always cloudy in England,” I replied, smiling. “Well then,” he said, “you’ll know that if you get in a plane and fly up through the clouds, there’s nothing but blue sky on the other side. Even when it appears as though there’s nothing but big, dark, heavy clouds, there’s always blue sky there.” There was no denying it, I’d flown a lot over the years and he was right. “So,” he said, shrugging his shoulders, “the sky is always blue.” He chuckled to himself as though everything I ever needed to know was in that one sentence, and in a way it was
